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Unable to drag his gaze fro backside, Mattheasn’t fooling a single person in the room At the moment he didn’t care

He should care

He had a child to think about, so his behavior ood example for Carrie

But Carrie was in Mened up for this continuing education conference before he’d known he was going to be raising his god-daughter He’d started to cancel, but hishe needed a weekend to decompress after the past few months Carrie was better off with his mother than she ith him anyway

His heart pinched as he thought of Robert and Carolyn The couple had diedtheir most precious possession to him Four-year-old Carrie

What had his best friends been thinking? Although serious in his professional life, he’d been a happy-go-lucky bachelor who kne to have a good time without the burden of commitment

Robert had been Matthew’s best friend since grah university then ether He’d been there when Carolyn had stolen his friend’s heart, had been best , had been there for Carrie’s birth

Having been only children to singlefaodfather prior to her birth Not believing he’d ever actually be raising the little girl, Matthew had agreed Nothing was supposed to have happened to his friends

But threehorrible that neither he nor Carrie would recover froine plane had crashed, instantly killing them both

If only his friends hadwould have been better than him

Matthew paused outside the ballroo? His life was in total upheaval He should not get involved with Natalie or any other woman when his world was so topsy-turvy

Wasn’t that why he’d hesitated to accept Natalie’s invitation to sit beside her?

To let her think there could be anything between the He had a whole new ure out Until he did, Carrie had to be his priority Only, so long as he made sure Natalie knew that whatever happened in Miami would end in Miami, there was no reason why they couldn’t enjoy the next few days He needed the next few days He’d not had sex in months Not since before his friends had Hell, he didn’t want to think of that anymore

Natalie would likely tell him to kiss her lovely behind when he told her he couldn’t offer more than a few days of fun in the sun Sure, there had been a rare moment when he’d been at Robert and Carolyn’s that he’d envied their relationship, the closeness they shared But he had never actively thought about -ter able to do what he wanted when he wanted homever he wanted, that if he wanted to stay at the hospital for twenty-four hours straight there was no one to complain or be disappointed that his work meant more than they did

All that had changed with Carrie Nohether he wanted to or not, he had to keep a regular schedule, had to coht